September 2013

You are easily dazzled by words that sound more sophisticated than they really are. You are totally aware of this – and yet you remain susceptible. Using hundred-dollar words where a five-dollar word will do is a time-honored, traditional selling tactic on Wall Street and in the hedge fund / asset management world as well….

Merrill Lynch’s chief of quantitative strategy is out with a call on the industrial sector this morning I’m trying to find the time to get all the way through. To kick off the report, the team lists ten bullet points that sum up the bull case: *** 1) The charts: bullish technical trends Analyst Steve…

via Eric Peters: “Obama’s a bad trader, simple as that,” explained the political insider, breezing through Santa Barbara. “He adds and adds to losing positions, trades without stops.” Apparently, Summers was never ever going to get the votes he needed. And no votes equals no confirmation. Then we moved on to matters of political intrigue,…

If you’ve never before heard the below famous quote by Mark Twain, consider its almost supernatural prescience along with its sardonicism: “October: This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February.” Twain said that a hundred years…

Vanguard takes a look at how investment markets have reacted before, during and after some recent fiscal crises now that we’re on the doorstep of the next one. The reality is that both the bond and stock market are pretty quick to brush these things off once the initial shock wears off. Here’s what the…

Here were the most read posts on TRB this week, in case you missed them: Is JP Morgan Out of Control? Notes from the Bloomberg Markets 50 Summit, Morning Session Notes from the Bloomberg Markets 50 Summit, Afternoon Session Frequency of Rebalancing: Why it matters (and why it doesn’t) Buying Umbrellas After the Storm Ten…